Living Death
by wulfenheim
Summary: In soul society, strange reports and eyewitness accounts start to pile up. Investigations are instigated, and grim revelations are revealed. This is the story of the Undead who faced impossible odds and succeeded. This is the story of the one who brought down gods. (Challenge by: TheDarkSpade)


Living Death:

Chapter 1: Dimension

'So this is what becomes of me?' Zed thought as he drove his Dragonslayer spear through the chest of the Gwyn, the lord of Cinder. 'To rekindle the flames and become a mindless undead, or defeat Gwyn and become the Lord of a dying world. There is no victory here either way'

Zed sighed and activated the powers of his Dragonslayer spear, electrocuting Gwyn from the chest. The fallen lord's body quickly fell unto the cold and dusty floor, where it became one with the dust and ruin. Gwyn's body disintegrated from the amount of electricity that was generated from Zed's spear.

The battle was over. Zed, the chosen undead, had one, and rather easily too. Gwyn had become a mindless Hollow. Thus, it was just as if he was fighting a well-equipped Hollow in Undeadburg.

Placing the Dragonslayer Spear on his back, Zed began walking towards the waning bonfire. Now he had to make a choice. Rekindling the flames would only prolong this madness and further the curse of Undeath. On the other hand, ushering in the age of Dark would remove the curse of Undeath and he would be the King of a slowly dying world. Zed deemed both choices to be senseless. Both choices offered no victory, both were of equal weight with nothing to give return.

There would be no regret if he rekindled the flames and no regret if he became the lord of Darkness. So why was he hesitating now? What was the point of all the struggle just to enter the Kiln of the First Flame and defeat Gwyn?

For the first time in his unlife, Zed was confused on what to do. He had not noticed, but the weapons on his back, the Moonlight Greatsword and Dragonslayer Spear, were starting to glow. His clothing, the Dark Set that he had attained after feeding a hundred humanities to the dark serpent, was emitting a black miasma that started to cover the entire room.

Without warning, a bright light shined from above him and something pulled him into the light.

"Captain Yuroichi, a hollow has been sighted in District 18. It was seen devouring the souls there" A male shinigami, presumable someone who held the role of a messenger, said to his captain. Captain Yuroichi of the Omnitsukido, also known as Goddess of the Flash, looked bored by this message.

"Send a detachment there, just some low ranks to take care of it" Yuroichi said in a bored tone. While she was truly bored, Yuroichi was serious in considering this matter. A Hollow rampaging inside Soul Society simply will not do. "Wait, cancel that. I'm gonna kill this one myself"

"Yes Captain" The messenger shinigami said before walking away.

"Are you seriously going to waste your time in killing an ordinary Hollow that's not even Menos Level?" Urahara asked in a very sarcastic tone. But seriously, what captain in their right mind would go out of his/her office just to kill an ordinary hollow? Apparently that captain would be captain Yuroichi.

"Oh you know it gets very boring just sitting in the office and looking at paperwork all day!" Yuroichi whined, like she always would if bored.

"Well it's your choice anyway"

DISTRICT 18: Ruined House

Zed slowly opened his eyes and took in the environment around him. This place certainly wasn't the Kiln of the First Flame, or anywhere he'd ever been before actually. The second thing he noticed was the number of glowing particles that started to gather and enter his body. Said particles were coming from, literally, everywhere.

They actually felt like the souls he would absorb from his foes, but these felt different. In fact, he felt different now. He felt stronger for some reason. But he had no time to dwell on these things. Right now, he had to find out where he was.

Zed got up from his current position and felt that he was, indeed, lighter for some reason. He didn't even notice the weight of his weapons on his back anymore. But they were still there mind you.

Seeing no immediate exit, Zed chose to make one for himself. He grabbed the handle of the Moonlight Greatsword and allowed the magical energy to build up. Zed, when he had felt that the magical energy on the Greatsword had reached its maximum point, swung the sword vertically and unleashed a massive crescent shaped wave of blue-green energy. Said energy caused the entire wall of the house to explode to a thousand pieces.

Zed noted that the pieces destroyed transformed into those glowing particles again, and, as they did, gathered around him and entered his body. This time though, he did not feel as much power as before entering his body, but there was an amount of power.

Outside of the house reminded him of the outskirts of the Undead Asylum. Snow and ruined structures as far as the eye could see. These ruins though, seemed to be very new. As in, these structures became ruins just a few minutes ago.

Zed immediately turned around when he heard the scream of: "HOLLOW!"

Being an undead himself, Zed would recognize that word anywhere.

With his enhanced speed, he immediately dashed through the snow. Completely unaware that he had accidentally created a path from his insane speed burst.

….

Zed arrived to the area where he'd heard the scream, but there was no one in sight. There wasn't even a single trace of a battle. Just some footprints on the snow, which hinted that there may be a giant creature somewhere around here.

Then he heard it. The most probable source of the giant footprints.

He turned around and saw a creature he'd never seen before. But he'd definitely faced things that are bigger if he had to make a size comparison to the Iron Golem.

This thing was tall. Probably around 8 meters by sight estimation. It had long slender arms with spikes near the elbow and elongated claws. Hind legs and some sort of bone mask that resembled a wolf or a dog.

The creature seemed to stop on its tracks upon seeing Zed. Like a wild beast, it began sniffing the air and crawling around him like some predator.

"**What are you?**" The creature spoke in a heavy and dark voice as it positioned itself back to where it was when it saw Zed. "**You don't smell like a Shinigami, or any kind of soul that I know of. You don't even smell edible!"**

'So this creature can speak?' Zed mused. He would truly enjoy a conversation with this creature if given another chance. But upon seeing the dead body of child on one of the creature's spikes on its back, this thing would be treated the same way he dealt with all his enemies.

Without hesitation, Zed dashed towards the creature and delivered an uppercut to the creature's abdomen, causing it to shriek in pain. Well, it would've been able to shriek in pain if ha had not thrown another punch, this time at its throat, at the beast. It fell to the ground whilst clutching its throat and abdomen.

The creature, driven by survival instinct and wild rage, attacked Zed by swinging its arm horizontally. Unfortunately for the creature, Zed had faced off against creatures a thousand times stronger than it, and its strength was just pitiful. The Chosen Undead stopped its reckless swing by punching its wrist, an audible crack was heard right after.

Zed stopped in his tracks when he noticed the Dark Hand was shaking for some reason. It felt hungry for some reason.

'Death would be a much easier fate for this creature' Zed thought right before he grabbed the creature's face with Dark Hand and began absorbing its life essence into himself. The creature struggled, forcing Zed to impale its jaw with the Dragonslayer Spear and electrocuting it with a thousand volts of electricity, effectively stunning it long enough to finish the kill. Zed then proceeded to forcefully open its mouth, or at least the mouth of its mask, and began absorbing its essence, but what came out of the creature's mouth wasn't humanity or life essence, but it was more of those glowing particles, just in greater abundance compared to what he'd seen back in the ruined house.

'Okay now I really want to know what this place is' Were Zed's thoughts.

He took one last glance to the place where that supposed 'Hollow' last stood and dashed away towards a safe and quiet location.

Zed ran away so fast that he neglected to notice the number of townspeople emerging from their homes, and cheering for their masked hero.

Hazaki Ryu, the elder, had seen the entire fight from inside his home just by looking through the window, and it was safe to say that he'd never seen anything like that.

First, the Hollow openly admitted that this 'hero' didn't smell like a spirit or a ghost. Secondly, Ryu had never seen such powers before. He'd seen many Shinigami kill Hollows before, but he'd never seen any Shinigami kill a Hollow just by punching it repeatedly.

Ryu then noticed several Shinigami arriving near the area where the battle was fought just minutes ago. One of them was a dark-skinned girl with purple hair and a captain's haori.

"Search that area there!" He heard the woman say. "Everyone else follow me"

Ryu saw her start running to the exact direction where their 'hero' had run off to.

"Grandpa, is the monster gone?" Ryu heard a child ask him whilst tugging the lower fabric of his clothes.

"Yes, the monster is gone now" Ryu answered. "Everyone! The village is safe!"

WITH ZED:

He had no idea where he was, what to do, and how to get back to the Kiln. He just kept running, not noticing that his current speed had built a wind tunnel around his body that was destroying everything in front and beside him as he ran. But he did not care.

All Zed wanted was to get back to Lordran, or Oolacile.

'Stop running' Zed immediately stopped upon hearing a voice in his head. It sounded distinctly familiar to the voice of the last owner of his current clothing. But he wasn't so sure since the voice only said two words.

Zed shrugged and concluded that he must be hearing things now. But can he actually see anything strange anymore? That would be highly unlikely.

The chosen undead continued running until he reached a place that was completely devoid of life. Just snow, rock and mountains as far as the eye could see. The chosen undead found a suitable slab of rock and decided to sit on it to clear his mind. Oh he had a lot to think about.

WITH YUROICHI:

'What an unpleasant pleasant surprise' Yuroichi thought angrily. 'We search for a Hollow that's apparently already dead, and then we get eyewitness reports of one guy beating it to death….just great'

"We need to head back to Central 46 and report this to the Captain Commander" Yuroichi said, her eyes narrowing. 'There was one part in the report though that was quite disturbing…witnesses all attested to the fact that this person absorbed the spirit particles emitted by the hollow after killing it….wait!'

Yuroichi suddenly stopped travelling and looked back to where the village was. She then turned to her newest recruit, Soi Fon.

"Go to the Captain Commander and deliver the reports to him. I'll stay behind and look for more clues about our mystery guest" Yuroichi said before using shunpo to disappear.

Later:

Yuroichi had seen strange tracks before. But this trail she's seeing on the snow was something she'd never seen before.

She was sure that this trail was left by the mystery killer since there were footprints from the sport where the hollow was supposedly killed that lead to this trail.

'He must've increased his speed somehow and ended up making this kind of trail' She thought. Her 'theory' was proven correct when she saw footprints embedded on the ground. Said footprints were more like foot-shaped gashes upon the earth. 'This wasn't some high speed movement. This is pure propulsion power form the legs!'

Indeed, it would take someone of extreme strength to be able to muster up this kind of leg power.

Since this was her greatest lead to the hollow killer, Yuroichi then decided to follow this path wherever it may lead.

OUTSKIRTS OF SOUL SOCIETY:

When Zed opened his eyes, he was greeted by the spectral form of someone whom he would not expect to meet again.

Clad in his shining golden armour and red plume, Ornstein's spectral form radiated a vast golden light across the icy wastes. Ornstein said nothing as he pointed his right hand to a direction that would lead Zed to more ice and snow.

From his current position, Zed could see the towering ice crystals that glowed with an unearthly blue hue. Zed turned his head to where Ornstein was previously standing on but did not find any trace of his vanquished foe. The chosen undead turned his head back to where Ornstein had pointed to earlier, and decided to see why he did.

Even though no life could even hope to survive here, Zed's current state of unlife allowed his body to proceed without obstruction from the icy winds and powerful blizzards even though his clothing was the Moonlight clothing from Gwyndolin. Even though he looked human, due to the use of liquid humanity, Zed was everything but.

Undeath meant that he'd have to continuously devour souls in order to stay sane. Once he starves from the lack of souls, Zed would start to Hollow. But that was one of the problems that he didn't have to worry about. In fact, Zed had already collected enough souls to feed all hollows in Lordran. But that's a story for another time.

Everything here was literally dry ice. Any and all sources of water would've froze here in mere seconds and be as hard as rock. Even the huge boulders themselves were as cold as ice. Zed wondered what he would find in this desolate place.

Later…..

Zed's current destination was apparently farther than he'd previously thought. This must also mean that those giant ice crystals he saw from his starting distance were, in fact, probably a thousand times larger than originally predicted.

Blue-green waves of energy seemed to pulsate from the massive ice crystals in the distance. Each pulsation caused a small quake that was barely strong enough to cause destruction, but strong enough to be noticed. Zed had not noticed this before, and took this as a sign that there must be something there. So he decided to run as fast as he could and hoped that whatever he'd find there would bring him back to Lordran.

'One can always hope'

YUROICHI:

The purple-haired shinigami instantly stopped when she noticed where the tracks, or trail of havoc and destruction, would lead to.

"The Icy Veils" She muttered under hear breath. Yuroichi had been running for hours straight nonstop. Now her search is right at a dead-end when the area in front of her, was now the Icy Veils.

Oh she'd heard stories about this place when she was little. Stories of brave shinigami who ventured far to the North to find the deep places of Soul Society. It was said that all they found was a slow and painful death from the cold as they eventually lost touch of their senses. One by one, they froze and became a part of the Icy Veils.

No one, not even the Captain Commander, actually knew what the Icy Veils actually is and how it came to exist. Even before Yamamoto became a shinigami, it was already destroying souls with its cold touch. It was said to be the only place in Soul Society that was not of the Soul Kings' sphere of influence. But that was just a theory.

Yuroichi, would not dare continue to a path where so many had died before her. No, she was not going to risk her life to find someone who used strange powers to kill a normal Hollow.

"Tch! What a waste" She said before retreating back to the Rokungai, where her subordinates would probably be at this moment. Yuroichi took one last glance at the snow covered landscape of the Icy Veils before jumping off. She could swear that she saw a strange bluish light in the distance. But it was probably just the light reflecting off some large piece of ice. '….and besides, the one who killed the Hollow is probably dead now…'

Unfortunately for her, that 'who' is neither living nor dead.

SOMEWHERE:

Zed had finally reached his destination, and indeed he was right about the massive Ice Crystals from which the cold of this region seems to originate. For some unknown reason, there seemed to be a familiar aura in here.

Zed reached a staircase and another specter beside it. A woman who was cloaked in ragged clothing and bore pyromancy flames on both her hands. Zed did not notice this specter as quickly as he did with Ornstein's, but then he remembered that woman in Blight Town who taught him his high level pyromancy. Sadly, he'd forgotten her name as their meeting was awfully short. At least he had not forgotten her teachings.

Zed approached the specter and immediately took a defensive step back when she raised her right hand and pointed towards the staircase. Zed said nothing as he began walking up the staircases, completely oblivious to the woman's smile when he did so.

Strangely, the steps on the staircase were made entirely of ice. Not like the frozen ones in Seeth's castle.

Zed eventually reached the end of the steps, and found that he was greeted by a friend whom he'd seen go mad in the Demon Ruins. Solaire of Astora stood as regal as he ever did in front of Zed, who wasn't even surprised by the specters anymore.

"Ah, fellow adherent to the lord of sunlight" Solaire said. "My friend, there is not much time. Please enter this cavern"

Solaire pointed towards a cave opening just beside him. Zed simply shrugged his shoulders and stepped inside. He had no idea what awaited him inside, but he knew that it would hold the answers to his questions.

A bright light shined form the cavern and engulfed Zed.

MANY YEARS LATER:

Yuroichi's personal hunt for the one who killed that Hollow was eventually abandoned after finding no further evidence to hint at anything that might lead to his/her/its location. Furthermore, the 13 Court Guards was having its own problems at the time. Aizen's silent betrayal, the banishment of several captains, including Yuroichi herself, and the death of one captain, all led to a lot of major internal conflicts.

Zed's existence was forgotten by the shinigami who'd been a part of the District 18 search team, just as he would like it to be. Soi Fon's report about the strange events in District 18 was given to the captain commander, but it was also forgotten over time. Only the village of Akani, or District 18, remembered their 'Hero'. Coincidentally, there were no Hollow attacks upon, or near the village, since then. The villagers built a statue, which was carved from a single block of stone and cast it from a fragmented memory. Though they did get the Moonlight set right, the weapons they'd adorned the statue with was a pair of Katanas.

With the Hollow attacks in the village of Akani gone, the district became one of the most prosperous districts in Soul Society.

Investigators were sent to search for the reason as to why Hollows seem to be afraid of even staying near the district. None of them could ascertain why this was the case. When they asked the villagers, the only answer they'd receive was about a fight that took place many years ago where a person destroyed a Hollow by beating it to death. Even if the tales from the villagers were eerily similar to Captain Soi Fon's report, the Gotei 13 dismissed it as mere local legends.

Only the residents of District 18 remembered what had happened that day. Everyone else just forgot.

DISTRICT 16:

Zed now walked the streets of District 16. His current choice of clothing was the leather armour without the helmet. His weapon that currently hung by his back was an Uchigatana that was imbued with the element of fire and a Jagged Ghostblade that was attached to his left hip. On his left hand was a talisman for the Sunlight Spear, and his right hand contained the Dark Hand.

To the denizens of District 16, Zed looked like a lost soul. But he now had a mission. A quest that was entrusted to him by the first of men, the Furtive Pygmy himself. Like all of his other quests, this one had impossible odds all stacked against him.

Zed had heard rumors about this place. Rumors that would probably lead him closer to finishing his current quest. But he had been told beforehand that this undertaking would not be a quick one. He was told to prepare for many years of searching.

Why he accepted the quest, he had no idea. Every time a deity or someone powerful asks him to do something, silence would be his answer. But then he'd end up doing it anyway.

Zed stopped right in front of an abandoned warehouse. He'd heard rumors that a person went inside this warehouse and came out with strange otherworldly powers that even shinigami didn't possess. Although this rumor is flimsy at best, the chosen undead had no choice but to follow each and every possible lead until he would find the right one.

Not bothering to open the giant wooden doors of the warehouse, Zed opted to kick it open. Which he did and caused the old wooden doors to explode in a flurry of sharp wooden debris. Inside of the warehouse didn't seem much. Just some bits and pieces of possible farming equipment and rusted scythes.

Zed raised his right hand activated the powers of the Dark hand. He scanned the entire warehouse, moving around inside and opening every nook or crevice and allowed the Dark Hand to scan it.

Zed sighed. This place was just another dead-end.

He was just about to leave the warehouse when he noticed a door that was barely noticeable, hidden beneath a lot of withered hay. Zed opened it and jumped inside.

Once inside, the Dark Hand immediately set off a reaction. The black energy that would cover the hand began to increase in size. This was the clue. This meant that 'it' was here, but isn't anymore.

Across the room was a chart filled with diagrams and sketches of a spherical object. Directly below the chart was a folder with the label of 'Findings'. Zed picked it up and began reading.

_Log 1:_

_This object, whatever it seems to be, doesn't appear to be anything that's from the human world or the spirit world. It holds no reishi but neither is it a 'physical' object. I detect no reiatsu from it. Further tests will be diagnosed in order to ascertain as to what this object is._

Zed sighed and began flipping through random pages. He really DID have a problem with the language of this world.

_Log 2345:_

_Simply incredible. I have discovered that this object, which I now dub as the Hogyoku, can remove the evolutionary blocks of a Hollow, allowing it to gain shinigami-like powers. I have also discovered that the Hollows who've attained shinigami powers would lose their Hollow appearance and mask. _

_I am unsure if this also works with Shinigamis. Further testing is required for this, but should I use for these tests? _

Zed flipped to the last page.

_Log 9875:_

_I am not sure, but I think that the Hogyoku is from another world altogether. I am unsure as to how it came to be here, but I know that it is here for a reason. Also, though this finding seems to be flimsy at best, coupled with the general lack of evidence, I think that this object is sentient. While I normally don't listen to my emotions, but I feel that it's alive somehow._

_I've also discovered that it somehow feeds on the life essence of those who are incapable of breaking their blocks. What a curious object this is._

Yup, there was no denying it. The person who owned this laboratory had found a fragment of 'it'. Well at least he was now sure that 'it' is still here somewhere.

Zed was dropped the file and was about to reach for another, when a sudden noise from the dark corners of the laboratory alerted him. Due to his sharpened battle-senses, Zed's next course of action was to draw the Uchigatana and the Jagged Ghost blade. What he saw in the dark was something he'd never seen before, and something that he'd never want to see again.

A strange grotesque creature. It wore torn Shinigami robes with many bloodstains; it still had its Zanpakutou, but seemed to be incapable of even holding it properly. The face of the creature was of a broken white mask and burnt skin with the eyeballs hanging loose from the eye sockets. The creature's teeth were showing as most of its face seemed to have been burnt severely. Finally, Zed noted that the creature was suffering. It was probably the victim of some cruel experiment.

The chosen undead sheathed his weapons, and summoned a Sunlight spear to kill the creature painlessly since it looked like it had been through endless agony before reaching this state. Zed threw the Sunlight spear towards the creature, who tried to grab it mid-air, but ended up being instantly electrocuted and incinerated. It wasn't even able to react to the pain it felt as its body was instantly reduced to smoldering ashes.

Zed walked towards the pile of ashes and picked up the creature's blade. It was undamaged as the creature had dropped it when it tried to catch the Sunlight spear. Zed decided to test the weapons of the warriors of this world, and this one was to be his test subject. He'd seen these 'Shinigami' fight with strange powers that seemed to come from their swords. So he was curious as to how that functioned, and how to replicate it if possible.

Little did he know that this sword was so much more than just a piece of sharp metal imbued with some elemental power or magic.

City of Nagasaki:

"So you're seriously going to spend most of your time in this form?" Urahara asked with a raised eyebrow, and an amused face. He then shrugged and reached for a cup that was in front of him. "The voice is a little creepy though"

"You think so too?" Yuoichi answered in a voice that belonged to an old man. "Then this disguise is doing exactly what it's supposed to be doing"

"Well" Urahara said before standing up. "Shall we?"

Yuroichi climbed unto his right shoulder and they both walked off.

"I'd hate to be nuked by the Americans"

"….yeah"

"…."

"…"

"…..Where are my clothes?"

"…oh damn….."

HUECO MUNDO:

Zed was now currently walking through the silver dunes of the Hollowed Dimension. Both his weapons were unsheathed and were upon his hands. The Fire-imbued Uchigatana on his right hand, and the Jagged Ghostblade on his left. He'd been to this place many times before, when he'd chase after every clue he'd find of 'it'.

Zed gained the ability to enter and exit this dimension when he used Dark Hand on a very powerful incarnation of those masked creatures. Strangely, this one was about the size of a human, had human-like appearance, and even had the intelligence to device a tactical plan. But what's the point of a brilliantly made plan if you're enemy decides to weave a massive fire storm? That's exactly what happened during the fight.

The hollow outmaneuvered and outgunned Zed. So he got lazy and decided to incinerate everything within a kilometer using a fire storm. It was also a good thing that the Hollow decided to take the fight to the outskirts of Soul Society. Otherwise, many souls would've been reduced to ashes.

When Zed absorbed the white particles, or reishi as everyone calls it, from the Hollow, he gained the ability to open Gargantas, which he learned by accident.

A gust of wind swept by him and caused him to stop to look around. As he gazed out into the open, Zed couldn't resist smiling at the absurdity of it all. Here he was, searching for a fragment of an object that was feared by the Gods themselves, and the ones who implored him to undergo on this quest were the people whom he slew back in Lordran. But since he wasn't in the position to refuse, he ended up getting himself caught up in another seemingly hopeless journey.

Zed sighed. Oh how tired he was. Not physically of course.

He then grabbed the Jagged Ghostblade, turned around and cleaved a hollow that tried to sneak up on him from behind. The creature fell to the ground as the cursed elements on the Jagged Ghostblade caused the creature's body to disintegrate.

'Pitiful things' Zed thought as he sheathed the Jagged Ghostblade and began walking again.

From a distance, a man stood watching. A grin was plastered upon his face as he thought the words….

'How interesting' the man mused before slowly walking away, blissfully unaware that Zed had already noticed him before. But instead of diverting his current course of action towards whomever that person was, Zed went back to his immediate goal.

…

AND CUT!

Rate n Review guys


End file.
